1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods for preparing a dough and/or baked product with a lipase.
2. Description of the Related Art
The strength of a dough is an important aspect of baking for both small-scale and large-scale applications. A strong dough has a greater tolerance of mixing time, proofing time, and mechanical vibrations during dough transport, whereas a weak dough is less tolerant to these treatments. A strong dough with superior rheological and handling properties results from flour containing a strong gluten network. Flour with a low protein content or a poor gluten quality results in a weak dough.
Dough xe2x80x9cconditionersxe2x80x9d are well known in the baking industry. The addition of conditioners to bread dough has resulted in improved machinability of the dough and improved texture, volume, flavor, and freshness (anti-staling) of the bread. Nonspecific oxidants, such as iodates, peroxides, ascorbic acid, potassium bromate and azodicarbonamide have a gluten strengthening effect. It has been suggested that these conditioners induce the formation of interprotein bonds which strengthen the gluten, and thereby the dough. However, the use of several of the currently available chemical oxidizing agents has been met with consumer resistance or is not permitted by regulatory agencies.
The use of enzymes as dough conditioners has been considered as an alternative to chemical conditioners. A number of enzymes have been used recently as dough and/or bread improving agents, in particular, enzymes that act on components present in large amounts in the dough. Examples of such enzymes are amylases, proteases, glucose oxidases, and (hemi)cellulases, including pentosanases.
WO 98/26057 discloses a polypeptide having lipase and phospholipase activity (GenBank Acc. No. A85215) obtained from Fusarium oxysporum. The enzyme has a molecular weight of 30xc2x12 kDa, an isoelectric point of 5.8-6.8, and optimum phospholipase activity above pH 9.
It is the object of the present invention to improve the properties of dough and/or baked products by the use of a lipase.
The present invention relates to methods for preparing a dough, comprising incorporating into the dough an effective amount of a lipase selected from the group consisting of.
(a) a lipase having an amino acid sequence which has at least 85% identity with amino acids 31 to 349 of SEQ ID NO:2;
(b) a lipase encoded by a nucleic acid sequence which hybridizes under high stringency conditions with (i) nucleotides 1525 to 2530 of SEQ ID NO:1, (ii) the cDNA sequence contained in nucleotides 1525 to 2530 of SEQ ID NO:1, (iii) a subsequence of (i) or (ii) of at least 100 nucleotides, or (iv) a complementary strand of (i), (ii), or (iii); and
(c) a variant of the polypeptide having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2 comprising a substitution, deletion, and/or insertion of one or more amino acids; and
(d) a fragment of (a) or (b), which has lipase activity.
The present invention also relates to methods for preparing a baked product with such a lipase.
The present invention also relates to compositions comprising an effective amount of such a lipase, for improving one or more properties of a dough and/or a baked product obtained from the dough, and a carrier and/or a baking ingredient.
The present invention also relates to dough or baked products.
The present invention further relates to pre-mixes for a dough comprising an effective amount of such a lipase, for improving one or more properties of a dough and/or a baked product obtained from the dough, and a carrier and/or a baking ingredient.